Immersion curing for hams mainly. I haven't resorted to injection yet but have found salt penetration issues with really thick pieces treated with a dry cure. Perhaps it is a time thing but when there is bone involved I want to get the cure distributed thoroughly and evenly as soon as possible.

Thinking that a brine would do better over an extended period vs dry cure in a ziploc and something heavy on top.

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Immersion curing for hams mainly. I haven't resorted to injection yet but have found salt penetration issues with really thick pieces treated with a dry cure. Perhaps it is a time thing but when there is bone involved I want to get the cure distributed thoroughly and evenly as soon as possible.

Thinking that a brine would do better over an extended period vs dry cure in a ziploc and something heavy on top.

We went in with our neighbors and split a whole hog to be butchered. Originally, the butcher was going to do all the bacon for us, but he is going to save 1/4 slab (he said it would be about 4lbs) of pork belly so I can make my own bacon. Reading through this thread I'm excited to try this!

We've got family coming in to stay with us the last week of August and have planned smoking some ribs, so I'll start the smoker low to smoke the pork belly. Once I take the belly off the smoker, I'll raise the temp up for the ribs and throw them on. I'll be using a mixture of apple and peach wood.

I've smoked many cuts of meat, but this will be my first at smoking pork belly, so any advice from those that have smoked their bacon would be much appreciated. Thanks!

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Jeremy Baker

"An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs. You should never see an Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order sign, just Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience." - Mitch Hedberg